Pigeon Toe Ceramics – porcelain designs

Lisa Jones has quickly struck a chord with her porcelain designs under the label Pigeon Toe Ceramics. Her simple shapes and restrained color palette are inspired by her love of a Scandinavian lifestyle and aesthetic, resulting in a line that is refreshingly modern and understated. Lisa taps her varied creative background and deep thoughtfulness to keep her products both affordable and of an heirloom sensibility. Based in Portland, this young artist is on the cusp of opening her own retail shop and studio showroom and sharing her knowledge and creations with a public that is already in love.

Tripod pots by Pigeon Toe Ceramics

For starting Pigeon Toe Ceramics so recently in 2009, you’ve made major progress! What inspired this leap from your previous work in graphic design, marketing and video installation?

From a young age, I’ve leapfrogged from one art medium to another and back again. I used to think it made me less of an artist somehow, to not have the one art form that I lived to work in exclusively. Turns out that my history of ‘dabbling’ really enables me creative control over all aspects of the business. It’s actually very empowering.

To answer the question, I was working a 9-to-5 as an in-house graphic designer when I decided I needed a more tactile outlet where I could turn my brain off a bit and just work with my hands. Graphic design can be very strategic and calculated, especially when you’re designing within tight brand parameters. I felt I lacked balance. So I found a local community studio where I could rent a shelf and revisited ceramics for the first time since elementary school. A few months later a company was born.

Volcano bud vase from the Raw collection by Pigeon Toe Ceramics

Scribble nesting bowls in Spring 2010 colors by Pigeon Toe Ceramics

Large tripod pot by Pigeon Toe Ceramics

How did you come up with the name Pigeon Toe Ceramics?

Credit belongs to my husband Ryan, actually, and his keen observation skills. Shortly after I started throwing again, I started to develop the business concept and first collection. I was deep in thought explaining my yet-to-be-named business idea when he stopped me mid-sentence to ask, “Do you realize that when you’re really engrossed in something you’re excited about, you stand pigeon toed?”

Some people think the name’s a little awkward, but I find it charmingly imperfect. And, of course, since I’m a designer at heart, I immediately thought about the abundance of imagery that could be associated with that name.

You’ve referenced modern Scandinavian design as an aesthetic you like. What were some of your early visual impressions that influence your work now?

The lifestyle and art of that region has had broad influence over my work — for me it’s more than just aesthetics. The social system in those countries is the closest to ideal for me – people live with less so everyone can have more. This mentality translates into an understated modernity that I really appreciate, especially in functional objects.

When I started working in video in college, I became obsessed with the filmmaking coming out of that region, especially Lars Von Trier and the Dogma movement. Of course, movies are for the most part fiction, but I appreciated the attempts to ground it as much in reality as possible, in letting a bit of imperfection and the ugliness of life in.

If Pigeon Toe were a clothing line, it would be Humanoid, which is a brand from the Netherlands (“Elegant with an edge for modern, urban warriors”).

Planed Bowl from the Furrow collection by Pigeon Toe Ceramics

You mention being inspired by ‘a new age of homegrown, Depression-era aesthetics,’ which I find fascinating. How are you approaching your work differently now than you might have in, say, 2007 before the economy took a tumble?

When I was in college, I started working for a clothing designer, managing her retail shop and helping out with marketing and web design. I have her to thank for knowing how to set up and run the wholesale and retail arms of my company. Her work is very high-end, and the clothing we carried to accompany her designs was also very expensive. And as the years passed (this is all pre-recession), I watched prices balloon far out of any attainable range for most people. I’m all for paying the price tag for a well-made item I’ll have for years, but knowing enough about materials and labor made me realize just how obscene the profits were for some of the lines we were carrying. The same thing happened in the fine art world around that time, to the point where it just felt ugly, greedy, and overly exclusive. My work and business philosophy grew in response to that experience, and I would hope that regardless of the year, I’d be pricing my work in an affordable way and making work for everyone, not just the select few with money to spare. I want to make a living, and provide a living for my production artisans that help me, not a fortune.

That said, I’m definitely more mindful of price points than I would probably be if there were more money in everyone’s pockets to invest in quality tableware. I cringe when my accountant tells me I need to up my price point, even when it’s only a few dollars. We all want nice things in our life; I just want my nice things to be within reach for everyone. Which can be hard to do when you’re making it all by hand the old-fashioned way, and locally, but I think we do all right.

Banded butter dish by Pigeon Toe Ceramics

One of the big challenges for any artist or designer seems to be that of restraint and editing their own work. With your largely white color palette and simple lines, it appears you have conquered this challenge easily. Does this come naturally to you?

I am blessed (or maybe cursed) with a strong gut instinct. My taste is fairly specific and particular, and working in design has helped strengthen my sense of color and line. Generally, I scrap an idea if I second-guess it. I think you can tell when something is labored, and I’ve found it translates fairly accurately in sales — my most popular piece (the tripod pots) just came to me on a whim one day. I like to think that my work is deceivingly simple, and the porcelain provides a smooth clean surface to let the shapes speak for themselves.

Large tripod pot from the Earth collection by Pigeon Toe Ceramics

Folded salt and pepper cellars by Pigeon Toe Ceramics

Nesting bowls in new Spring 2010 colors by Pigeon Toe Ceramics

How would you describe your various collections, and are there particular inspirations for each?

The first collection I made was Askew, which is table and gardenware that has been gently manipulated out of round. I enjoy the asymmetry, the perfectly imperfect, but it’s also about ergonomics. The folded miso bowl was manipulated to fit nicely in your hand as you cup it. The dent mug provides a nice recess for your thumb to rest. Around the same time, I started working on the Raw collection, which is aesthetically less unified, but all have polished, unglazed porcelain exteriors and interior pops of bright color. Porcelain can be sanded and burnished into a river rock-like smoothness, and the matte bare clay looks so lovely in contrast with glossy color. This is where I get have fun with color, without it overpowering the design.

Last fall I launched my Patio collection. I’m a big plant nerd and love being outdoors, so these pieces were all crafted as an homage to outdoor sanctuaries. I wanted to take under-designed products (like birdfeeders, hanging planters, and wind chimes) and make beautiful modern equivalents. Much of the work incorporates leather straps as hanging devices. I enjoy finding ways to incorporate other materials into the designs. We’ve definitely struck a chord with the gardenware – there really are very few options between cheap (think .50 terracotta pots) and really expensive for planters.

Folded miso bowl from the Askew collection by Pigeon Toe Ceramics

Mini Creamer from the Raw collection by Pigeon Toe Ceramics

Disc chimes from the Patio collection by Pigeon Toe Ceramics

Disc birdfeeder from the Patio collection by Pigeon Toe Ceramics

I’m about to launch my first lighting collection, called Striae. The shades were all thrown on the wheel and then slipcast for translucency — porcelain gives a lovely warm pink-orange glow when lit. The shades are unglazed porcelain and all have tiered striping and banding patterns on them. I wanted to make patterns through shadows on the surface – made possible by varying the thickness of the clay and making careful use of recesses.

Lights from the Striae collection by Pigeon Toe Ceramics

Kerr votive lantern by Pigeon Toe Ceramics

Can you tell me a little bit about your creative process, materials, and the team you’re building?

I used to worry that I would run out of ideas, but I really have the opposite problem. It’s one of the more enjoyable aspects of doing functional versus fine art work – too many ideas. I’m having to teach myself to not take on too much too soon, because my impulse is to get all of my ideas out there as I have them. But if I did that, I’d have like 200 products on my site, which would be a production and organizational nightmare. Instead, I jot down ideas in a notebook I carry with me wherever I go and focus on one core idea to build the collection around twice a year, with a few special release products in between to keep things fresh. When I add, I also subtract low-selling designs or unpopular colors.

I’ve already mentioned some of the amazing properties of porcelain, but I could go on. In addition to translucency, purity of color and smoothness, it’s also one of the strongest clay bodies around, and watertight when unglazed. It’s also the most difficult to work with and the most expensive, but the good outweighs the bad. Ceramics can be a real heartbreaker, though. There are so many steps to the process, and each one has the potential to ruin your hard work. Or make the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen. It’s a trade-off.

Luckily, I have a great group of artists to help me. I currently have three people that help me part-time so I can focus on the other aspects of the business (like sales, books, new designs, photography, web design, marketing, shipping, etc.). I still throw about 20-30% of the product on order, but the dream team handles the rest of production. Choosing not to cast all my work means hiring skilled craftspeople to reproduce my work on the wheel day-in, day-out, which is a fairly specialized skill. We want to build a different kind of relationship to the work you own by us. It has a history — and a person behind it.

Pieces in process at Pigeon Toe Ceramics

Lisa Jones at work at Pigeon Toe Ceramics

Portland seems to have such a thriving art scene. Is there anything in particular about Portland’s culture that has made launching your line an easier process?

Everyone is more than willing to help each other out here (we’re a supportive, scrappy, resourceful bunch), plus Portland is a town posing as a big city. If you live here for a few years, you’ll realize everyone is closely interconnected. So there’s a huge web of resources and support that makes spreading the word, or getting help, much easier. I had the advantage of being connected to the art scene from going to PNCA and also in the retail/design scene from my previous job, so I basically went around to the stores I liked and talked to the owners, who I mostly knew already, and the business got off the ground really quickly after that.

I see you’re selling through Etsy and through a growing list of retailers. How are you building and promoting your business, and where do you see your work going from here?

I’m sure my marketing background doesn’t hurt, but I feel like we’re been really lucky with growth. Apart from initially getting it off the ground, I haven’t solicited wholesale business. The inquiries have all come from the shops, and they’ve found me mostly through blogs. Etsy I can tell you now is responsible for much of our press. I think mainstream media is looking more and more at design blogs and Etsy for the next big undiscovered designer, or at least unique, exclusive, one-of-a-kind content. Sunset, ReadyMade, and Country Living all found out about Pigeon Toe through Etsy. What an amazing built-in audience that is! If anything, we’re growing a little faster than I would have liked, but that’s a good problem. And, aside from a few hiccups, we’ve managed just fine.

I spend a lot of time on my newsletters, which I send off to traditional press and blogs as well as my customers. I’ve never advertised, but the word is getting out, so I attribute it to good communication skills and a bit of luck. Well, and our work’s obviously resonating with people. All the communication in the world won’t do any good if people don’t like what you’re selling.

I’m on the cusp of opening a studio/showroom space here in Portland that will gently transition into a full-fledged retail storefront (a long-held dream). That’s the next big step for us. I’ve been working out of a private basement studio for a year and want to spend more time meeting my customers! And be in a place with BIG windows and lots of sunshine. I want them to see the process while they’re shopping and talk with us about the work. The shop will have a wall of windows that look into the production studio, so there will be a very literal connection.

I’m also planning on hosting some workshops at the new space over the summer for people interested in learning to throw. I’m excited about the idea of sharing my knowledge and love with others. Both my parents are high school teachers, and I considered going into education for a while, so this I hope will satisfy that urge.

Eventually I’d like to expand the brand to other genres of housewares. That’s down the line, and I need to figure out a way to do it that doesn’t jeopardize the integrity of the brand as is, and how to do it gracefully. Expansion is often awkward and full of stumbling blocks. I’m trying to do it as organically as possible. I look to people like Jonathan Adler, who has done a great job moving from ceramics to a whole design empire without corrupting his core aesthetic or values.

Marsupial pot from the Patio collection by Pigeon Toe Ceramics

Notched bowl by Pigeon Toe Ceramics

Dented bud vase from the Askew collection by Pigeon Toe Ceramics

Since you made this big leap of faith yourself, I wondered if you have any advice for someone just starting out or hoping to make a similar change in their work?

Have a support system in place before you start – owning a business is stressful and gets more so as you add variables. Have confidence in your work and ability to make it your life. Find a good accountant to start you off right from the beginning – trust me. And don’t take out a loan until you absolutely have to. Grants are your best friend, and so are no-interest loans from your family (and there’s no shame in that).

Every day I get to wake up and dictate my own future. The choices are all mine to make. And I get to create for a living! The risk is always worth that for me.

What are some of your favorite things, whether they impact your work directly or just make you happy?

Moments of leisure outdoors — swimming at the river with my husband and dog, digging in the dirt and planting things, camping, summertime outdoor parties, coffee on the porch with a good book. Good friends over for dinner. A well-tailored garment. Blue, early morning light. Really nice product packaging. Giving presents. Oversized sweaters. Cello music. Adorable animals. Tacos and margaritas. Baths in a deep clawfoot tub.

Music plays a big part in my day; the stereo is on 90% of the time at the studio. When we’re not listening to NPR, someone puts on the iPod. Lately, I’ve been listening a lot to the Dirty Projectors, the Magnetic Fields, Bob Dylan, Dr. Dog, the Silver Jews, Beirut, Willie Nelson, Fleet Foxes. Oh, and the soundtrack to Where the Wild Things Are.

I wouldn’t survive a week without The New Yorker. And I’m a not-so-secret Lost fan. Which, by the way, is on tonight — so it’s time to go!